Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1887-08-13

VINO were bringing US our annual supply oI
| goods and wa, brought on here. You should
get him TO tell you the story"
When dinner was over we lit our pipes, and
Sir Henry proceeded to give our host q
description of our journey up here, over
which he looked very grave.
at is evident TO me- he said, "that those
rascally Nasal are following you. and l am
very thankful that you have reached this
house in safety l do not think that they
will dare to attack you here. 1t is unfor-
! tunate, though, that nearly all my men have
gone down TO the coast with ivory and goods.
There are 2o0 of them in the caravan. and the
consequence is that l have not more than
twenty men available for defensive purposes
in case they should attack us But, still, l
| will Just give a few orders" and calling a
black man who was lettering about outside
| in the garden, he went 10 the window and ad-
dressed him in Swahili dialect. The man
listened, and then salutei and departed.
Il am sure l devoutly hope that We shall
bring no such calamity upon YOU, said l, anS-
| iously, when he had taken his seat again
| Rather than bring those bloodthirsty villains
about your ears, we will move on and take
our chance"
You will do nothing Of the sort. II the
Nasal come they come, and there Is an end
on it; and think we can give them pretty
warm greeting would not show any man
the door for all the Nasal in the world"
THAT reminds me-" said, ''the consul at
| Lamu told rne that lie had letter from you,
| in which YOU said that man had arrived here
who reported that be had come across
| white people in the interior. Do you think
that there was any truth in his story! l ask
because have once or twice in my life heard
rumors from natives who have come down
from the far north of the existence of such
race
MIR Mackenzie, by way of answer, went
out of the room and returned, bringing with
him a most curious sword. Ii was long, and
all the blade, which was very thick and
heavy, was, to within quarter OF an inch OF
the cutting edge, worked into an ornamental
pattern exactly as we work soft wood with
fretsaw the steel, however, being invariably
pierced in such a way as not TO interfere
with the strength of the sword This in itself
was sufficiently curious, but what was still
more 50 was that all the edges OF the hollow
spaces cut through the substance Of the
blade were most beautifully inlaid with gold,
which was in some way that cannot under
stand welded on to the steel.
Then said Mr.. Mackenzie, did you ever
see q sword like that!'
We all examined il and shook our heads.
"Well, have got it to show you, because
this is what the man who said he had seen
the white people brought with him, and be-
cause it does more or less give an air of truth
to what should otherwise have set down as
q lie Look here; will tell you all that l
know about the matter, which is not much.
One afternoon, just before sunset, was sit
ting on the veranda, when poor, miserable,
starved looking man came limping up and
sauntted down before me. i asked him
where he came from and what he wanted,
and thereon he plunged into long, rambling
narrative about how he belonged to a tribe
far in the north, and how his tribe was de-
s,royed by another tribe and he with few
other survivors driven still further north,
past a lake named Laga Thence, it appears,
he made his way to another lake that lay up
in the mountains, "A lake without bottom
he called it, and here his wife and brother
died of an infectious sickness-probably
smallpox-whereon the people drove him out
of their villages into the wilderness, where he
wandered miserably over mountains for ten
forest, and was one day found there by some
white men who were hunting, and who took
him to a place where all the people Were
white and lived in stone houses Here he re
r.ainod a week shut up in a house, till one
night a man with a white beard, whom he
understood to be a medicine man, came and
inspected him, after which he was led off and
taken through the thorn forest To the con
. f,I, x.-iljar,aSS onl food md
this sword (at least SO he said and turned
loose
"Well,- said Sir Henry, who had been
listening with breathless interest, "and what
did he do them
"Ol, he seems according TO his account, to
have gone through sufferings and hardships
and TO have lived for weeks on
roots and berries, and such things as be could
catch and kill But somehow he did live,
and at last by SLOW degrees made Lis way
south and reached this place. What the
details Of his journey We're l never learned,
for told him TO return on the morrow, bid
ding one of my headmen look after him for
the night. The headman took him away,
but the poor man had the itch so badly that
the headmans wife would not have him in
the hut for fear of catching it, SO he was
given a blanket and told to sleep outside As
it happened, We had a lion hanging about
here just then, and most unhappily he winded
this unfortunate wanderer and springing on
hm, bit his head almost off without the
people in the hut knowing anything about it.
and there was an end of him and his story
about the white people; and whether or no
there is any truth in it is more than can tell
You. What do you think, Mr. Quatermainf"
shook my head. and answered, Il don't
know. There are so many queer things
hidden away in the heart of this great con-
tinent that | should be sorry to assert that
there was 10 truth in it. Anyhow, We mean
to try and find out. We intend to journey
to Lekaksera, and thence, if We live to get SO
far to this LaSe Laga; and if there are any
white people beyond, We will do Cur best to
find them
You are very venturesome people, said
Mr. Mackenzie, with a smile, and the subject
cropped.